UPCOMING EVENTS

We can’t all save the world. Some of us just want to play video games, but it turns out that the two aren’t mutually exclusive.

Over the last week, a group of gamers helped raise over $1 million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation. The members of Speed Demos Archive, which is a collection of people who enjoy beating games as quickly as possible, put on a week-long marathon called Awesome Games Done Quick. The event saw dozens of speedrunners — as they are known in the community — breaking open scores of games.

Awesome Games Done Quick 2014 racked up hundreds of thousands of views, with more than 109,000 watching concurrently at one point on game livestreaming service Twitch. The average donation was $37.01 as viewers watched players quickly dismantle games like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Super Mario 64, and more.

“When the Prevent Cancer Foundation began its relationship with Speed Demos Archive back in 2010, we knew how dedicated the volunteers and donors to marathon were, but we never imagined this event would raise $1 million to save lives through cancer prevention and early detection,” Prevent Cancer Foundation executive vice president Jan Bresch said in a statement. “It is a dream come true and we thank this amazing group of individuals for making it a reality.”

We’ve collected some of the best speedruns from the event below. Check ’em out:

A world record for Minecraft

Speedrunner Bismuth set a new world record for beating the block-building game. The action gets started at the 13:20:43 mark in the following video:

One-handed Super Mario 64

A runner named Peaches_ beat Super Mario 64 in less than 23 minutes using only one hand. Skip ahead to 12:23:35 to watch the impressive feat:

Four-person Super Metroid race

Four of the best Super Metroid players in the world came together for a one-of-a-kind race. The event starts at the 7:51:15 point of the following video:

Blindfolded Super Punch-Out!! run

Speedrunner Zallard1 went all Jedi and beat the boxing game Super Punch-Out!! for the Super Nintendo while wearing a blindfold. The astounding display of skill begins at the 54:40 mark below: